WASHINGTON (AP) – The economy slowed sharply in the first three months of the year as high gas prices cut into consumer spending, bad weather delayed construction projects and the federal government slashed defense spending by the most in six years.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that the economy grew at a 1.8 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter. That was weaker than the 3.1 percent growth rate for the October-December quarter. And it was the worst showing since last spring when the European debt crisis slowed growth to a 1.7 percent pace.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and other economists say the slowdown last quarter is a temporary setback. They generally agree that gas prices will stabilize and the economy will grow at a 3 percent pace in each of the next three quarters. read more

Yesterday, the Vermont State Senate passed a bill by a count of 21-9 that would establish a single payer system in the state. The bill has already passed the state House by a count of 92-49, so after a reconciliation process (the bills were slightly different), they can move them on to the Governor for his signature. Governor Peter Shumlin campaigned on establishing single payer in Vermont, so he’s clearly on board.

This is another of what will be several steps to achieve single payer in Vermont. The reconciliation, passage in the Legislature and signage by the Governor is in many ways the easy part. Vermont must then obtain a federal waiver allowing it to opt out of the Affordable Care Act; under current law, they would not be able to opt out until 2017, although a bill from Vermont’s representative in the House Peter Welch and Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) would move up that date to 2014. The President has endorsed that approach, but that doesn’t mean it will pass. In addition, Vermont must circumvent ERISA laws which prohibits states from enacting legislation related to employee benefit plans. Insurers will almost certainly sue the state under ERISA, but Vermont for Single Payer believes this will not be an impediment.

In the class, the Professors not only advocate the occasional need for violence and industrial sabotage, they outline specific tactics that can be used. As one of our colleagues pointed out, its the matter-of-factness of it all that is so disturbing. read more

Hear ye! Hear ye! The president has finally released his real? birth certificate. See it here, live and forever cast in stone!

I’m a bit confused – are you? As one friend has noted: “Born in two countries , official records in states he never visited . Witnesses to being born in two countries at once . Why does anyone doubt the truth, when all you need do is pick the truth you like.”

Why indeed should anyone doubt the truth? Pick the one that suits you folks and forget that our country has gone to blazes right in front of our eyes! We have no Constitution, we have no one in D.C. However, we must remember that 0bama himself co-authored the fact that he agrees with the Constitutional mandate that “both” parents have to be Citizens of the United States. Just a minor complication, I’m sure. read more

Trump is at it again, first he started out with obama’s birth certificate, and now he is claiming obama wasn’t qualified for the Ivy League…

Obama who never released his college transcripts, which is a pattern for obama when it comes to concealing information about himself…

Trump brings out the fact that obama wrote in Dreams of My Father that he hadn’t always been an academic star. Trump claims obama was a poor student, he said he will continue to press the matter as he has the legitimacy of the president’s birth certificate…

Katie Hogan, a spokeswoman for obama’s re-election, declined to give a comment.

The whole birth issue controversy has dominated the early stage of the 2012 GOP nominating contest, with Trump leading the charge.

Trump said,”I have more people that are excited about the fact that I reinvigorated this whole issue,” adding “the last guy (Obama) wants to run against is Donald Trump.”

Trump is scheduled to travel to the early primary states of New Hampshire and Nevada this week and said he will make a final decision about a presidential bid by June.

“S.C. political leaders used words such as ‘frivolous,’ ‘shameful’ and ‘ludicrous’ Thursday to describe a National Labor Relations Board complaint against Boeing, which is building a $750 million aircraft assembly plant in the state.” This was the lead in the Associated Press story from North Charleston.

If there was any doubt whether or not the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under the Obama administration had declared war on job creators, it was answered the other day when the “independent,” taxpayer-funded agency decided a company did not have the right to build a facility in a right-to-work state.

This outrageous and borderline insane notion stems from Boeing’s decision to build a new factory in South Carolina in order to meet demand for their 787 Dreamliner commercial aircraft. read more

when obama was elected gas was 1.84, now two years later it has doubled to 3.84 t0 4.00 a gallon..analysts were predicting $4 a gallon by this summer and $5 a gallon by 2012. Anyone could have predicted that the recovering world economy, coupled with the continued growth of India and China, was going to push oil prices higher.

Had this Administration wanted to keep gas prices down, they could have increased oil demand by increasing domestic oil production. But that is not what the Obama Administration has done. Instead of increasing domestic oil supplies, the Obama Administration has cut them at every opportunity, and Americans are now suffering because of those choices.read more

During today’s morning meeting, Angel made a great point regarding the ChiComm military taking power in 2012. That alone should give pause and be a clarion call for every red blooded American to wake up. We see the potential for America to have it’s best days ahead. We’re not doom-n-gloomers here at PBN, we are realists however. The DEMOCRATIC party as a whole, and a remnant of the republican party have allowed puerile evil access to destroy America’s autonomy and excellence in the world…

We can stop it, but we have to wake up America! -PBN

By Brett Arends, MarketWatch
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — The International Monetary Fund has just dropped a bombshell, and nobody noticed.

For the first time, the international organization has set a date for the moment when the “Age of America” will end and the U.S. economy will be overtaken by that of China.

A new study conducted by German scientists has found that the CFL energy saving light bulbs contain poisonous carcinogens that could cause cancer and should be “kept as far away as possible from the human environment,” but the Govt will force us to replace the traditional light bulbs with toxic CFLs as a government ban is set to take effect at the beginning of next year.

The study was conducted by Peter Braun at the Berlin’s A lab Laboratory, they claim that several carcinogenic chemicals and toxins were released when the environmentally-friendly compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) were switched on, including phenol, naphthalene and styrene,”

scientists warn that the bulbs should only be used sparingly, in areas with good ventilation, and “definitely not in the proximity of the head,” due to the danger of the electrical smog the bulbs generate impacting human health.

How ever this is going to difficult when we will be forced by our Govt to use these dangerous bulbs by January 2012.